Critical Incident Response Teams

Critical Incident Response Team

These guidelines address the formation and function of Critical Incident Response Teams, which prepare for and respond to incidents at the unit level.

Form a Critical Incident Response Team for your unit with at least two people in each of these roles:

Team Leader: Makes decisions, has access to financial resources.

Operations Manager: Has access to departmental records, knows what activities are taking place (what research is going on in each lab, what programs will be impacted by a crisis), and arranges for fire drills.

Communications: Focuses on communications needs during a crisis, maintains phone lists, creates listservs, notifies relevant people about the crisis, gets information out to a broader audience, arranges for media inquiries to be answered, arranges for counseling, arranges for departmental training in crisis management, etc.

Computing: Is knowledgeable about departmental computing systems and able to assist in re-establishing access to computer databases from off-campus locations, quickly establishing departmental web pages with information about the crisis, and finding information relevant to the crisis, etc.

Create an e-mail list and learn how to access it from a location outside your office (like another building on campus or from your home).

Get copies of floor plans for your building.

Mark critical locations: rooms where chemicals are stored, rooms that house animals during the day, rooms where disabled employees work who will need assistance getting out of the building in case of emergency.

Establish assembly pointsfor the department to meet when the building is evacuated.

Have a Business Continuity plan to identify and preserve the key elements you need to continue doing business.

Create an Emergency Packet for each member of the Critical Incident Response Team to keep in the trunk of his/her car, in the office and at home. It should contain all of the above items.

Prior to a Critical Incident:

Hold a departmental meeting to inform your department of the CIRT Plan, and to get input.

During the first class meeting each semester, tell students where the escape routes for that classroom are.

Schedule fire drills. Insist on full participation.

In CIRT team meetings, brainstorm the response for a variety of circumstances such as:

Fire

Death of a student or employee on campus

Death of a student or employee off campus

Violent incident

Takeover of building by protesters

Information about the department that leads to intense media scrutiny

Team Responsibilities During A Critical Incident:

Address security and safety issues first.

Call 911: UA Police Department will respond

Evacuate the building if necessary

If UAPD has established a command post, CIRT members should identify themselves to police.

Decide on Immediate Next Steps:

Should classes be canceled?

Will events or meetings have to be cancelled or merely relocated?

Is a research activity that was in progress prior to the crisis in serious jeopardy? (An experiment that was abandoned midway?)

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